Hottest Bridesmaids EVER

It's a bold statement and I have no problem living up to it. No really....it's true. My bridesmaids are HOTT. That's hot with two T's hot! Take a look for yourself.

Here I am with Jenelle. There's a pic of her in a previous post about her recent Vegas wedding.

Introducing...my Matron of Honor, Stephanie (along with our friend Mark). We've been BFF's since 6th grade. We've been through it ALL.

This is Susan with her lovely man, David. She's my go to gal for style. Susan is a freelance make-up artist and stylist, so she'll be the one making me look pretty on my wedding.

This is a picture of Charlene and I rocking out at a Tesla concert. We like to get together and sing 80's rock ballads at the top of our lungs. We're putting out an album. Seriously. We are.

This is the lovely Ms. Casey. Casey is my hometown sweetie, and I was heartbroken when she moved to Seattle. She's a fiesty one, so watch out. Casey will be doing my hair for the wedding. No up do's here.

Next up is Hilary pictured here with her special guy Tommy. Although Hilary and I have only known each other for a couple of years, she's still one of my very close lady friends. She's super sweet.

Check out Crystal on her wedding day with her hubby, Brad (also a groomsman). I met Crystal through my fiance, and we've been friends ever since. I was a bridesmaid in her wedding, and now she's returning the favor.

Not only do I have seven kick ass bridesmaids, but I also have one amazing "production manager." Amy is probably one of the sweetest, kindest people I know. She's going to boss people around and get things done on my wedding day. Here is a picture of Amy in a Charlene and Christine sandwich.

Bridesmaid Dress Fiasco

Bridesmaid dress are ugly. I searched high and low for a decent bridesmaid dress, but everything I found was cheesy or typical or just too damn expensive for a dress these girls will only wear once. It was my goal to find a bridesmaid dress my ladies would love.

Since the typical bridesmaid dress wasn't going to cut it, I searched on Etsy, a website of uber crafty crafters who sell their goods. You can find anything from furniture to jewelry to clothes. While searching through the site one night, I found the most adorable dress that would work perfectly for a bridesmaid dress. I emailed it to all my ladies immediately in hopes that they would all love it as much as I did. Only one problem: the dress was $150. That's pretty average for bridesmaid dresses, but I was really hoping to find dresses for less than that.

A few months later, I was trolling through Offbeat Bride and ran across a post about a girl's holiday wedding. There were pictures posted and this girl had the most adorable bridesmaid dresses I had ever seen. I posted a comment to ask where she found the dress and she replied that she ordered them off Trashy Diva. I was at work when I read the reply, and my work internetl filtered the Trashy Diva website out (because of lingerie), so I called my best friend Susan to check out the site and find the dress to see how much it was. Susan called me immediately and said, "You're not going to f-ing believe this. The dress is on clearance for $34." Woohoo!!!! Susan called Trashy Diva to make sure they had all the sizes we needed in stock, and they did. I called them immediately after that and ordered seven of them.

I waited patiently for the dresses to arrive...and I waited and waited and waited and waited. Nothing. According to UPS, the dresses were delivered to my house, but I never received them. I called UPS who told me to call Trashy Diva. Angie at Trashy Diva reassured me that she would call UPS to get an investigation started to find my dresses. Worst case scenario: they send me more dresses out or send me my money back. Unfortunately, I needed four mediums and they only had one left. Uh oh. I kept my fingers crossed that the dresses would eventually show up on my door step.

No luck.

Angie to the rescue. She told me that the dresses run big and suggested that I just get smalls to replace the mediums. In the meantime, another medium showed up, so Trashy Diva was sending me out the two mediums and some smalls. They sent the package to Greg's grandparents house, and I kept my fingers crossed that the dresses would show up and fit my ladies.

Score!

The dresses arrived and fit all of my bridesmaids! Perseverance and patience pay off. My bridesmaids look amazing in the dresses!

The Dress

I've dreamed my entire life of choosing my wedding dress. Finally...it's my turn.

The search began at the Filene's Basement crazy wedding dress sale...only I had no idea the sale was going on. Greg's Mom and I went in the evening after all the hoopla (thank god), so the pickin's were slim. I grabbed a dress or two just for shits and giggles. When I walked out of the dressing room in the first dress, Greg's Mom busted out laughing. The dress was big and poofy and ridiculous. SO not me.

We went to David's Bridal one day on a whim. The sales girl asked me what I was looking for and I told her, "I want a strapless, fitted dress, kinda mermaid style. I like lace too. Like the dress on the mannequin over there, that's very similar to what I'm looking for." She ran off to grab me some dresses. What she came back with...was nothing I had described; she didn't even bring the dress that was on the mannequin!

Then I went to a local bridal shop with my bridesmaids in tow. They picked dresses. I picked dresses, and the sales woman, Willie, picked dresses. There was one my bridesmaids loved, and there was one I loved, but for some reason, Willie kept telling me about another dress I had to try on. So after trying on seven dresses, she brings me the dress. My first thought: yuck. It was nothing I would have ever picked, but Willie insisted I try it on. So I did and I couldn't take my eyes off myself. It was stunning. There was something intriguing, different, and very couture about the dress. I now had it narrowed down to two dresses.

My last stop was the bridal district in Cincinnati (yes, Cincinnati has a bridal district). There was a store there they had thousands of dresses from designer to knock off. They had the intriguing dress there only for about $1000 more. I tried on a few different dresses, but I kept going back to that one dress.

That's when I decided that it was THE one. I made an appointment with Willie again to try on my two choices. It was a no brainer. I ordered the dress and that was that! I would post a picture on here, but I'm afraid my lovely fiance will run across this blog and see it. I will tell you that it's white, fitted, and it's a Melissa Sweet knock off. It's gorgeous and I LOVE it!

Viva Las Vegas!

Yippee!!!!!!!!!! My best friend and bridesmaid, Jenelle, married my fiance's best friend and best man, Josh. They got hitched in Vegas last month. I'm SO thankful we were able to make it. The ceremony was adorable and I cried. Greg and I thought about doing it up Vegas style at the Graceland Wedding Chapel (where Jon Bon Jovi got married), but realized we couldn't because our families wouldn't be able to make it. No worries for Jenelle and Josh! They had 30 guests fly out to Vegas for the occasion! Congratulations!

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

I've never been so indecisive in my life. The closer we get to the wedding, the dumber I get. I can't make decisions, and I constantly change my mind.

My groom isn't really into all this wedding hoopla. He certainly has opinions about the wedding, but overall he is not part of the planning process. That's fine with me. He's a guy. I don't expect him to care about what our colors are for the wedding or what our centerpieces are going to look like. By the way, our colors are black, white, with a splash of hot pink.

Here's a list of things we know we do want:

1. GOOD music at all times.
2. We're not getting married in a church because we are not religious. OK, so technically we are getting married in a church but it doesn't function as one currently.
3. Our friend will be our officiant.
4. The groom will wear a custom made Manuel jacket (that's a post all for itself).
5. Since our theme is rock & roll, everything will revolve around that. From the invites (tickets) to the VIP laminates we're making for the bridal party to the centerpieces to the program.

I'm sure there's more I can't think of. Most of it will probably end up posted on here. There are also plenty of other things I can't decide on, so that will end up on here. too.

Going to the Chapel...

Even before it was official, I was calling every venue to get prices. You know what I discovered immediately? The wedding industry is a rapist. They rape you on anything and everything they can. It's absolutely ridiculous.

One venue will boast free rental...only if you spend at least $20,000 on food. Another venue is only $1500, but you have to buy $30,000 in food and drinks. You can only use their vendors. You can't bring in your own booze. AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't have that kind of cash to throw down on one day!

My first choice of venue: The Grand Valley Dale Ballroom.

Not only is it freaking gorgeous but it's also historic. It was a big band and swing club back in the day. The Rat Pack, along with many others, performed here. One of my best friends got married here, and the second I walked inside I fell in love with it. There is also the most amazing Art Deco bar upstairs for the cocktail hour. STUNNING.

Only one problem: I couldn't afford it. It was about $1500 to rent and I had to pick a beverage package and the cheapest one started around $3500. On top of that, is the price of the caterer. Although the price for the Valley Dale was much cheaper than every other venue I had looked into, it was still out of my price range.

Lucky for me, I have awesome friends. I was feeling a little down since I knew I wasn't going to be able to book the venue of my dreams, so my friend Charlene suggested I check out a little place called the Olde Gahanna Sanctuary. It was cute, quaint and cheap.

So my future mother-in-law, Cindy, and I went to check it out. Charlene was right. It was super adorable and affordable. The Sanctuary was a church but no longer functions as one; it's a community center/event center now. There are beautiful stained glass windows everywhere and it has an old school charm to it. For the price, I couldn't beat it. I definitely visited other places that were cheaper, but they were also much trashier. And I could use a caterer of my choice and I could bring in my own booze. Score! So I wrote a check for the deposit and that was that.

Make sure you check out the website for pics of the venue. I couldn't get them to load on my blog.

Will You Marry Me?

My friend David said, "A girl dreams of the perfect wedding. A guy dreams of the perfect proposal." My fiance, Greg, dreamed up something that I never would have come up with in my wildest dreams.

Some friends of ours had mentioned going on the Lynyrd Skynyrd Simple Man cruise. Really? Lynyrd Skynyrd has their own cruise? Holy hell...we've got to go on this! So in January 2008, we hopped on a big ass boat along with 3000 other rednecks to enjoy four days on the high seas with one of the greatest southern rock bands to ever exist.

Let's rewind for a minute. In mid to late 2007, Greg said to me, "Baby, if we ever get married, we'll have to get married on July 18th since that's already our anniversary. That way, I don't have to remember a new date." Being the wonderful girlfriend that I am, I looked on a calendar to find out when July 18th was falling on a Saturday: July 18, 2009. The next day, I let Greg know and he said, "OK." And that was that. So we had talked about the wedding, but there was never a proposal.

A couple weeks before we left for the cruise, Greg's Mom emailed me and asked me what my favorite cut of diamond was. That really should have tipped me off, and in the back of my head I was thinking, "Maybe he'll propose on the cruise..." Then it left my mind when he got into a huge fight with his Mom the day before we left, "She's just trying to get me to do things before I'm ready and not on my terms!" When he said that I thought, "Well, looks like he's not proposing on the cruise." And any idea of a proposal was deleted from my brain permanently.

So we go on the cruise and have some fruity cocktails, hang out with our friends, and rock out to some amazing bands. On the third day of the cruise, we stopped in Calica, Mexico. We all decided to go on an excursion to see some Mayan ruins. As we approach the last ruin, Greg runs up the front of the steps and I run up after him...only to stop half way up.

Those steps were steep and I was over it. I told Greg I was going back down. He kept reassuring me that everything was OK and that I just needed to climb the rest of the way up. I kept reassuring him that the steps were too steep and I was freaking out, so I was climbing down. Then everyone on the ground started telling me to go the rest of the way up and they'd take our picture. I thought to myself, "When am I ever going to get the chance to stand on top of a Mayan ruin again?" I gathered up what courage I had left in me and climbed the rest of the way up. Once I made it up there, I went to grab Greg so we could have our picture taken, but he had other plans.

He dropped down on one knee and asked me to marry him and I started crying like a freaking baby. He blindsided me. I TOTALLY didn't see it coming, even though I should have because ALL the signs were there. It was more perfect than I could have ever imagined it.

What made it even more special was that our friends were there to witness it. There's even video of it and the commentary on the ground (and the bitchfest I was having on the way up those steps) is hysterical. If our friend Derek can ever figure out how the hell to get it off of his video camera, I'll post it on here.

Now I ask you...does a proposal get any better or any more rock & roll than that? No way! I got engaged on the mother f-ing Lynyrd Skynyrd cruise bitches!!!!!

Allow Myself to Introduce...Myself

Hello!

After a little push from a friend, I've started this blog to document the ups and downs, the stress and excitement, and the happy and bridezilla moments of planning my dream wedding on a major budget.

I'm marrying my best friend, my rock star, my lover, my soulmate, my inspiration, my everything.

Music is a passion for both of us, so it was only natural for us to gravitate towards a rock & roll wedding with a little touch of outlaw country.

Our Theme: Rock & Roll

The Title: Sparkle & Twang

The Budget: CHEAP ASS CHEAP

We'll splurge where necessary and cut every corner possible, yet still manage to have a classy and tacky wedding that we'll remember forever. I say classy and tacky because well...we're classy with a touch of tacky, like a velvet Elvis painting.